All articles by Ab Zagt
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Rotterdam wins cash injection for Hubert Bals Fund
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs will is to investEuros 2.5m in the Hubert Bals Fund, part of the International Film Festival ofRotterdam (IFFR).Between 2005 to 2008, the money will be shared betweenprojects from film-makers in developing countries.In its autumn round of funding, the fund says it will back22 film ...
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Dutch distribs press ahead with Van Gogh release plans
The Dutch distributors ofmurdered director Theo van Gogh's latest film, 06/05, are pressing aheadwith plans to release it in the next two months.06/05, which deals with the assassination on Dutchpolitician Pim Fortuyn in 2002, was finished just before van Gogh was shot andstabbed yesterday by a 26-year old Moroccan with ...
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Controversial Dutch filmmaker murdered
Controversial Dutch director Theo van Gogh (47) was murderedthis morning in Amsterdam. According to police reports, the filmmaker, knownfor his provocative statements, was stabbed and shot in the centre of the Dutchcapital. A suspect was arrested near the scene of the crime after an exchangeof gunfire with police.Van Gogh had ...
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Dutch video rental sector in decline
Film piracy is becoming an increasingly serious threat tothe Dutch video rental industry. According to the latest data, 80% of videooutlets are suffering declining business, with drops of as high as 15 %compared to 2003.Industry body, the NVDOdescribes the situation as 'disastrous', with the main reason for thedecline being the ...
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Buyers clamour for Verhoeven's Blackbook
Paul Verhoeven'sfirst Dutch film for 21 years, Zwartboek(Blackbook), has been sold to five territories, with four more pending, inadvance of its late October start of shoot.Katapult Fim Sales has sold the WWII thriller to the United Kingdom (Metro Tartan), Italy(Lucky Red) and Belgium, France and Switzerland (all Pathe Distribution).Producer San ...
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German remake for hit Dutch football feature
SuccessfulDutch football feature In Orange (In Oranje) is to be remade for Germanaudiences.Germanproduction house Gemini Film struck a deal this week with In Orange producers Motel Films and Fu Worksto retell the story in German with a working-title In Die Mannschaft.Accordingto Fu Works other countries - including Spain, England and ...
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Twenty one features selected for Netherlands Production Platform
Twenty one local and foreign feature-projects have beenselected for this year's Netherlands Production Platform, which will take placeduring the Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht between Sept 24-26.The selected titles will be presented to Dutch and foreignproducers and financial backers. The Dutch entries are also aiming for TheKodak Development Prize, worth ...
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Simon to represent Netherlands at Academy Awards
Simon, the newfeature by director Eddy Terstall, has been selected as the Dutch entry for theOscars next year in the best foreign film category. The production will alsoopen the 24th Dutch Filmfestival on September 22.The film is produced by Imko Nieuwenhuijs for productionhouse Spaghetti Film. The screenplay is written by ...
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RCV boasts host of Cannes pick-ups
Dutch independent distributor RCV has announced that itacquired a large number of major titles during Cannes. Deals include the threebiggest films offered during the market section at the festival: The Brothers Grimm (starring Matt Damonand Heath Ledger) ,The Good Shepherd(with Leonardo DiCaprio) and The NewWorld (Colin Farrell, directed by Terrence ...
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Harry Potter 3 prompts new Dutch rating
The third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, has received a unique newrating in the Netherlands. Nicam, the organisation responsible for theage-limits assigned to films in Holland, will introduce the advisory age of 9years.Normally, films are branded with one of the four existingratings: All Ages, 6, ...
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Yet another film distributor launches in the Netherlands
"Born out of necessity" is how producer Els Vandevorst describes the expansion of her production company Isabella Films into theatrical distribution.Dutch feature Het Zuiden (South) is the second film Isabella has released theatrically this year following Thomas Vinterberg's It's All About Love. Vandevorst served as one of the producers on ...
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Perfume, Sky Captain snapped up by RCV
Independent Dutch distributor RCV Entertainment has announced details of a number of high profile acquisitions at last month's American Film Market.The Hilversum based company was one of the first buyers for Tom Tykwer's Pefume adaptation, which was sold by Summit Entertainment.RCV has also high hopes for the science-fiction epic Sky ...
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NETHERLANDS
Until recently, family-films and especially those based on children's books, seemed a sure-fire success for Dutch cinemas.However, the disappointing opening results of the Belgian-Dutch coproduction Suske And Wiske: The Dark Diamond, with a meagre screen-average of Euros 465 came as a nasty surprise for distributor Independent Films.The company expected the ...
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NETHERLANDS
The massive opening of social comedy Shouf Shouf Habibi! in the Netherlands even surprised distributor Independent Films "This is beyond our expectations," Niels Swinkels, head of marketing told ScreenDaily.com. "We were aiming for 100,000 admissions, but in the first weekend we already reached 50,000, much better than we were hoping ...
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Trio win Rotterdam Tiger Awards
International Film Festival of Rotterdam (IFFR) has awarded its three Tiger Awards to films from Taiwan, Germany and Bosnia-Herzegovina.Directors Lee Kang-sheng (The Missing), Sredjan Vuletic (Summer in the Golden Valley) and Jan Krüger (En Route) received the awards worth Euros 10.000 at the Friday night (Jan 30) at the closing ...
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Dutch Film Fund names ten directors for development scheme
The Dutch Film Fund has unveiled a new initiative called Ten To Watch, which sees ten directors given Euros 10,000 to develop their next film project.The scheme was launched during this week's International Film Festival of Rotterdam with the aim of stimulating more artistic and less commercial productions in the ...
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Verhoeven wins top Dutch film award
Director Paul Verhoeven is to receive the Holland's most prestigious national film award, the Bert Haanstra Oeuvre-prize.The award, to be given for the fourth time, comes with a 45,000 Euros purse.The award jury, presided over by former minister Hans van Mierlo, said that Verhoeven is a director who is able ...
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Verhoeven links with Constantin for One Step Behind
Dutch director Paul Verhoeven is planning to make a film adaptation of Swedish thriller One Step Behind by author Henning Mankel - his first film since Hollow Man in 2000.German production house Constantin Film approached Verhoeven to direct the film which deals with the murder of three teenagers investigated by ...
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Dutch Mussels producer declares bankruptcy
Amsterdam-based production company Argus Film has been declared bankrupt, while the future of its distributor partner, Upstream Pictures, seems unclear.Owner Peter van Vogelpoel told the Dutch press that he expects that Upstream - which released Dancer in the Dark in the Netherlands - might survive, but Argus is finished.The problems ...
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Local hits fuel Dutch box-office in 2003
Cinema-attendance in the Netherlands rose again in 2003, despite fears of a fall because of the state of the economy.Admissions rose 2.5% to a total of 24.7m, while box office rose 3.5% to Euros 162.5m according to national cinema body NFC.NFC-chairman Wilco Wolfers told ScreenDaily.com that the good results were ...